FPSF organizers seek permission to expand to 3 days in 2014

The folks behind Free Press Houston Summer Fest are asking the City of Houston to allow them to expand their two-day weekend festival to three days next year, with the kickoff coming May 30 at 4 p.m.

In addition to the extra day half-day tacked on to the beginning of the music and arts festival, they also want to be able to extend the festival two hours on Friday and Saturday night, ending at midnight and 11 p.m. on Sunday night. This would also call for Allen Parkway to be closed on Thursday after morning rush hour.

If you already bought tickets during the event’s pre-sale, there would be no extra charge if another day is added to the festival.

Free Press Houston editor Omar Afra hopes that the added hours will help his festival cultivate a more diverse lineup, which is scheduled to celebrate its sixth year Saturday, May 31, and Sunday, June 1.

“We have generated over $14 million dollars in revenue for the city, garnered national press attention, and brought in over 20,000 out-of-town guests to check out what our fine city has to offer,” said Afra.

He points out that the wildly successful Austin City Limits Music Festival was allowed to expand to two weekends from just one by the city of Austin, pumping twice the money into the capital city even with the same lineup across two back-to-back three-day weekends.

Afra said that the current changes being made to the festival site at Eleanor Tinsley Park, where the event has been held since 2009, has limited the space for major productions and caused costs to increase.

“We were not included in stakeholder meetings to plan site changes and our needs were simply ignored,” Afra said.

Susan Christian with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events works closely with Afra and the Pegstar group that puts on FPSF every year. She says both parties still have some work to do ahead of next year’s show. She couldn’t comment specifically on their requests of additional hours and days, though.

“We love the event, and it has been wildly successful. They have made several requests and we are positive that there will be a great event next year,” said Christian.

The two parties haven’t finalized any agreements just yet, but Christian says they will be having a meeting next week to work on the requests.

Last week, a few fans were shuddering at new, higher prices that were unveiled during a FPSF pre-sale event. Afra said that the changes to the park aren’t helping.

“People are getting shocked off prices from previous years is all. We cannot sustain a big cool festival with great production on $20 tickets,” he says.

It is his hope that more days and hours added to FPSF will help offset costs. In turn, he said, this will bring in more revenue to the city economy. He said every Houston city council member he has approached with this plan has said yes.

Back in August, plans for the revitalization of Buffalo Bayou Park, which Eleanor Tinsley Park is part of, were laid out in a press release. Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Silver Eagle Distributors announced that the beer distributor was kicking in $2 million for work to be done around the park, especially in the “big bowl,” the event meadow where major gatherings are held inside the park. This is where the main stage is located for FPSF, and where Freedom Over Houston’s musical acts are stationed on July 4. Work on the Bud Light Amphitheater will be finished by spring 2014.

“Every single city council member we have approached about (our) plan has given us a resounding yes,” says Afra. “Yet there are still bureaucrats in the city who have silently become obstacles.”

Afra is arguing that longer hours and the extra day will also bring in more out-of-town visitors, which in turn means more revenue for the city, namely hotel reservations.

Exceptions for extended hours and days are arbitrarily handed out every day, and other large festivals in town, Afra says, operate under different rules and ordinances for some reason.

“Some other festivals seem to be exempt from rules that we are held to,” said Afra, mentioning, for example, that the organization behind Freedom Over Texas celebration at Eleanor Tinsley Park is given a wider berth to set up and tear down. When other festivals get to have loud music past the city’s own curfew, he says, FPSF does not.

“The festival is coming of age and we think we deserve an extra bump up because it would be good for the city,” Afra said. “The festival has reached a point where it is a city-defining event.”

Afra says that FPSF pays for the extra police and EMS that come out to the festival, with over 300 working multiple shifts at the festival last year.

Plans for the festival after 2014 are unknown if they don’t get the extra hours and days, Afra said. All systems are still a go for next year’s festival, Afra assures.

“We love having the festival where it is, but we have to grow,” he said. “We feel like Eleanor Tinsley is our home, but we cannot get any smaller.”

As for the construction, Christian says everyone is being affected by it, not just FPSF.